The recipe for financial freedom

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We may not want to believe it but many people are slaves to money. Their lives are shaped by the money they have in their banks. It is a fact that it is easier to show love when you have the resources to do so. If you are a slave to money, it can steal the quality of time you spend with your family. The recipe for financial freedom is to learn to have power over money.

Money is important but you are more important than it. Money should be a tool in your hands so as to achieve your goals. But if you focus on the tool, you lose track of your ultimate goal. Being great on managing money makes one a master over money. Instead of chasing after money for the rest of your life, money has to follow you.

On this article we discuss few things that can enormously help you to attain financial freedom such as:

• learning,
• understanding money,
• understanding who you are, and
• applying your knowledge.

The power of learning

The only way you can know about something is by learning. You may learn from others or learn from your experiences. Whatever way, if you are serious about attaining your freedom from money, you need to learn every minute.

I know you may think that you are intelligent because you have a degree – that is not enough. I agree that your degree may help you to a certain extend but that is not the recipe for financial freedom.

Learn basic things that can change or challenge the way you think. Many things we believe to be true are not necessarily true. People have a tendency of withholding the truth when they market things. Learn to identify the catch in every deal you deem to be great. Do not allow anything to catch you by surprise.

Moreover, one of the greatest lessons I learnt about money is that making money is like playing a game – never play it if you do not know the rules. Do not let your ignorance be the reason for your loss.

There are several ways to learn about growing your money like:

• reading books.
• reading financial blogs.
• attending seminars.
• watching videos or tv programs about money.
• associating yourself with friends who are driven by success.

As you increase your learning, you will start to realize people’s different perspectives about money and you will identify what works for you. Taking me for an example, I learnt about money the hard way – I made some poor financial decisions in the past. I felt like a ship sinking in the middle of an ocean but I did a retrospective thinking to identify where I went wrong. I took responsibility for my poor financial decisions in the past and my hunger for learning increased.

Get to know money

When I was growing up, my family did not talk much about money. In my mind, money was that ‘thing’ I did not have. Since we grew up without money, we were told that education is the only tool you can use to make money. This was the ‘wrong’ advise we were told by people who also had no clue of how money works.

The poverty mentality we were born with told us that we have to chase after money. To soothe ourselves from that vicious fight, we spend on useless liabilities to prove to people that we have money. Because we do not have any clue of what money is, we lose it through our actions – the fight continues and we chase after it again.

Furthermore, a child from a poor background is not allowed to do a career of his/her choice – you only choose a career that has money! They end up doing things that do not define who they are, only for money. In the process they will hate their jobs, their life and feel like the world is not fair.

In addition, money is just like romantic love, if you chase after it, you will not find it. If you follow your goals and do what you are made to do, money will follow. Money is attracted to success. The only way to gain more money is by giving it away. This is the greatest recipe for financial freedom.

When you invest, you are giving your money away and in return you gain it more. This is what separates saving and investing. With saving you are playing safe with your money but the growth is also small. That is why savings can never make anyone wealthy while investing can make one extremely wealthy.

In addition, a large portion of current billionaires got their money from answering a human need. Note that money comes from people, therefore, when you provide a solution to their needs, money has no any other option except to follow you.

Understand who you are

People are different and the failure to acknowledge that is a recipe for disaster. What works for one person may never work for the other. What works for Robert Kiyosaki or Warren Buffet may never work for you. Despite how great and insightful their books are, you can be poor even after following them.

You can learn all the books of this world or attend every seminar but if you do not have a clue of who you are then you are wasting time. Understand were you came from. Know your situation. What separates you from a person close to you? What can you do better than a colleague in your team?

Moreover, the risk level you are willing to take is different from other people. Before you follow advises blindly, invite your inner being to the discussion process. You can never be a great person by being a copy cat – identify your own unique path by trying different things. Learn from others and mix it with your uniqueness to stand out from the crowd.

Suppose you want to invest in property, great investors may advise you to use debt but not your money (“using other people’s money” criteria). This is not a fireproof concept because it only works if you are able to borrow money at a lower interest rate. If your credit score is bad, it may not be wise to invest using debt. This can even make you more poor!

The same tool making one a millionaire, can make one poor only because people are different. You can never ignore who you are on making financial decisions. Let your heart, mind and signature be seen in whatever investment adventure you partake. This is the recipe for financial freedom.

Putting your knowledge into practice

You can read all the books in the world or follow all the great people but if you do not act upon that then you will remain the way you are. Do not excessively rely on what other people say without tasting and testing it.

If you want to be successful on investing in shares, find a stock broker and start buying shares. Just start with the money you are willing to lose. Gain the experience with little money before you get in too deep.

Learn by doing! Do you know that great investors or entrepreneurs will never disclose their winning formula? They can only tell you less important tips but they will deliberately withhold the most important information of what made them. Therefore, identify your own winning rhythm by trying and learning from your mistakes.

No any book can beat the skill learnt from practice. Do it slowly until you refine your strategy and the patient always win the race.

In addition, there are other diseases that are entertained by people – procrastination and giving excuses. A person can say he/she needs to read several books for 2 years before he/she starts investing – this is rubbish. This is the same mentality that is making our education system meaningless. Learn an idea and apply it. Let your mistakes teach you. This is the recipe for financial freedom.

In conclusion, you need to learn, understand yourself, understand money and act upon your knowledge in order to be a master to your money. If you are willing to change your life, you must be willing to convert your talk into action. This is the recipe for financial freedom.